Los orígenes del concepto de relación jurídica (rechtliches verhältnis-rechtsverhältnis)

Abstract

This article attempts to find out about the origins of the expression "juridical relation" or "relation of law" (Rechtsverhältnis).  Although the relative character of the law has been asserted since Classical times, the concept of "juridical relation" is preferably concerned with the particular notion of law which has been called "subjective" since the mid-XVIII century. In its origins and development, it was defined as facultas or potestas, which implied its adscription to the Aristotelian category of the qualitas and not to that of relation. In fact, from Hugo Grotius' work it has been defined as qualitas moralis. At the end of the Middle Ages, Conradus Summenhart explicitly applied the word relation to the definition of ius, nevertheless considered facultas or potestas; other philosophers and jurists subsequently did the same, but not one of them employed terms equivalent to "juridical relation."  Only in Kant do rechtliches Verhältnis and Rechtsverhältnis emerge and, from then on, these expressions were coined in contemporary and later jurists' lexicon.  However, never was it specialized, defined, or endowed with a systematic rank, until Savigny's System des heutigen römischen Recht. The analysis of Savigny's concepts reveals, however, that he could not differentiate the juridical relation of subjective law.